Wall Street Crisis Trickles Down To Nation's Country Clubs

You've probably been following the current financial crisis in New York and the subsequent showboating in Washington meant to end it all and thought to yourself, "Yeah, but how is this going to affect me?" Well, why don't you stop being selfish for five minutes and think about the people who will truly be hit hardest by this Wall Street crunch—professional golfers and the sponsors who love them. All sports rely on filthy rich brokerage houses, banks and insurance companies to fill the advertising spots that entertain you on lonely Sunday afternoons, but the non-elite sport of golf finds itself particularly well-tangled with the big firms that enjoying seeing their name in front of the word "Open."

Golf is unusually dependent on revenue from the financial category, with about 25 percent of network ad time coming from that area. Plus, nearly one-third of all events sanctioned by the PGA Tour are sponsored by banks, investment firms, credit card distributors or financial consultancies, putting golf at the biggest risk from the crisis.

Oh, and that Tiger kid totally punked out on them too! So if the hospitality tents seem a bit smaller next spring, that's one more thing you can blame on your horrible mortgage. • Will financial turmoil put golf in a hole? [Sports Business Journal]